'An Abstract Day' is a 2009 experimental short by Dutch animator Oerd van Cuijlenborg that has just recently been posted on-line. The film uses semi-abstract imagery to visualize the sounds in the daily life of a couple, who fight, make love and escape the hot and crowded city. It is a simple story in which the visuals and sound are produced together to merge into a unique world. It amazes me how something so visually beautiful can be created out of something as mundane as the everyday dialogue used to structure the film.

Oerd van Cuijlenborg usually structures his abstract shorts around music, so I've also posted '8.1', a recent film based around the music from the 'Unfinished' 8th Symphony by Franz Schubert. Enjoy!

I recently posted about Hyungkoo Lee, who creates wonderfully disturbing sculptures of his favourite cartoon characters. These anatomical cartoon sculptures by Jason Freeny are equally creepy and cool.

'Passenger' is a hand-drawn film that abstracts the nighttime driving experience into a playful, kinetic performance of color and shape. It’s a junior year film by Africanus Okokon, a student at Rhode Island School Of Design. I can't wait to see what he produces as his senior film next year.

A stop-motion animated film about farming by Johnny Kelly, commissioned by Chipotle Mexican Grill.

It shows the life of a farmer as he slowly turns his family farm into an industrial animal factory, before seeing the errors of his ways and opting for a more sustainable future.

Willie Nelson was commissioned to record a cover version of Coldplay's song, 'The Scientist', for the film's soundtrack. The song is released on iTunes, with proceeds going to a non-profit organisation Chipotle Cultivate Foundation, 'committed to creating a more sustainable and healthful food supply and to raising awareness concerning food issues.'

Kelly Meador & Daniel Elwing aka Impactist have created a new batch of short visual promos to accompany the music for their latest EP 'Plants And Animals'. Each of the shorts plays with a different visual style, some animated, some not, but all worth a watch.

You can buy the EP, watch more promos and learn more about the Portland based due here: www.impactist.com

Created by the wonderful Malcolm Sutherland purely for the enjoyment of his son Max. This short film simply asks... What's the quickest way from A to B? A basic premise turned into a clever little animation.

Created by DDB Paris and B-Reel this advert for Liptons exclusive collection features the music of Parisian duo 'Outlines'. This animation was created as a continuation to the billboard campaign and new website launched earlier in the year. The animation also features graphic elements used throughout the campaign even down to the new packaging for the range.

These three pieces of hand-drawn roto-scoped cell animation were created using nothing but the limited colour palette of Highlighter markers and feature the varied works of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The first video '5 4 3 2...' is a series of continuous Hollywood explosions edited into a simple beat.

The second 'Galleria' is a cut from Terminator 2.

The third 'come on... get down' is a original gangster rap with lyrics provided by Arnold himself and arrangement by Harry McGowan

The short films premiered at the Standard Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles as part of Cine-Shorts which is a bi-monthly series that aims to provide a platform for local directors + aspiring filmmakers making their mark in the city of Los Angeles.

A spectacular stop motion recreation of the light cycle scene from 'Tron', featuring Tron Guy a.k.a Jay Maynard produced for Duck Tape on Tongal as part of the 'Stuck On Duck Video Project' by Ryactive.

'I'm Fine Thanks' was directed by Eamonn O'Neill at the Royal College of Art, 2011. The film will premiere in competition at the 2011 Ottawa International Animation Festival. I'm looking forward to seeing the film in full.

I’m addicted to this free online game called 'Wonderputt'. Everyone should check out this extremely inventive and graphically beautiful game from Damp Gnat (aka Reece Millidge) an interactive arts and animation studio in Brighton.

We've known it's been coming for quite a while, but people at the Disney D23 Expo got to see some footage from 'Frankenweenie' the feature-length, stop motion, animated feature directed by Tim Burton. Based on his live-action '80s short film of the same name, the new movie expands on the plot to chart the life of outcast lad Victor Frankenstein and Sparky, the dog he adores.

"After unexpectedly losing his beloved pooch, young Victor harnesses the power of science to bring his best friend back to life — with just a few minor adjustments. He tries to hide his home-sewn creation, but when Sparky gets out, Victor’s fellow students, teachers and the entire town all learn that getting a new “leash on life” can be monstrous."

A few months ago I posted the trailer for Disney’s Cars spin-off, direct-to-DVD movie - 'Planes'. After just a couple of days Disney pulled the video from the internet. After being officially announced at the Disney D23 expo it's now available online again, so I thought I'd re-post it in case you missed it the first time. Above is the first official image of lead character “Dusty” voiced by Jon Cryer.

Pete Docter ('Monsters Inc.' & 'UP') is working on a 2014 film that takes place inside the human mind jokingly refered to as 'The Untitled Pixar Movie That Takes You Inside The Mind.' The official plot synopsis is as follows: "An inventive new film that explores a world that everyone knows, but no one has seen: inside the human mind."

Also, 'UP' co-director, Bob Peterson is striking out on his own with a film. The 2013 pic takes place in a world where dinosaurs never died out, and (presumably) mingle with humans. Jokingly refered to as 'The Untitled Pixar Movie About Dinosaurs.' The official plot synopsis is as follows: "What if that life-changing asteroid missed Earth? This tale depicts a world where dinosaurs never went extinct."

Written, animated and directed by Lee Gingold, this short Beatles animation was created for the online campaign called 'Why Music Matters'. With music becoming so readily available through so many sources, their concern is music is becoming less precious. The campaign hopes to highlight services who support musicians and their craft, not exploit them.

Visit the 'Why Music Matters' websites to see animated films for artist including Elbow, Iron Maiden, Nina Simone and Sigur Ros amongst others.

The Disney-organised D23 Expo is on this weekend in Anaheim and so far there has been a numbers of announcements worth mentioning. Firstly, the directors of 'Tangled', Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, are preparing a Disney Channel TV special for next year called 'Tangled Ever After'. 'Tangled' is a great movie, but Disney sequels never seem to live up to the standard of the originals so I’m not expecting anything special here.

After a 3 year wait filmmaker and visual artist Max Hattler finally released his abstract opus called 'Aanaatt' online. The film is an ambient, VFX and narrative-free stop-motion film created in collaboration with Japanese composer Jemapur.

Digital Domain recently opened its CG animation studio in Port St. Lucie, Florida. They announced that this studio, which they’ve officially dubbed Tradition, will work on 'The Legend of Tembo'.

Pam Coats, who is heading up creative development at Tradition, says Tembo is the story of a baby African elephant who is captured and shipped to India:

“When he gets to India that’s where sort of the journey takes place, and this is a guy who becomes someone else. So, he has to transform himself into a fierce, battle elephant, which is based in truth. They did use elephants in battle in India. He has to become something he is not in order to return home.”

Screen Novelties have put together a showreel of clips from the projects they've worked on over the years. It includes some of the superb work they've done for 'SpongeBob SquarePants', 'Chowder' and 'The Marvellous Misadventures Of Flapjack'.

Steven Subotnick is an award-winning independent animator and animation teacher. He has taught animation at Harvard University, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and is currently at Rhode Island School of Design. Here are some examples of his fantastic independent work:

Ori Toor continues to explore psychedelic, fluid animation in this unofficial music video for Panda Bear’s - Alsatian Darn. If you haven’t seen it yet, I've also posted the video for Animal Collective’s - Lion in a Coma, done over a year ago.

Construction toy company Meccano will be releasing a new line of 'Tintin' toys around the time Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s 'The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn' hits theaters in Europe on October 26. The new toys include a 320-piece seaplane, 270-piece 4×4, and a 630-piece replica of The Unicorn. They look great!

Australia’s Eness art and design studio create public art installations and this mesmerizing stop motion assembly of 21 triangles in Melbourne’s Federation Square is their latest.

"Twenty-one large triangles animated by Melbourne, throughout Federation Square. MÖBIUS is a sculpture that can be configured into many cyclical patterns and behave as though it is eating itself, whilst sinking into the ground. The result is an optical illusion and a time-lapse of people interacting with the sculpture and moving through Melbourne's landmark location throughout the day."

Tod Polson earlier this year announced his Maurice Noble book, and he’s also touring with a new animated short. 'Escape Of The Gingerbread Man!!!' is a CG short that includes some nice looking 2D elements. The 12-minute short has already taken home some prizes, including a Jury Runner-Up award at this year’s SIGGRAPH festival. Here’s the trailer:

Hyungkoo Lee creates wonderfully disturbing sculptures of his favourite cartoon characters. Where possible the Korean artist uses bones from real animals. The other, non-existent bones, he creates himself from resin. The result is sort of creepy, but fascinating to look at.

Berlin's Monkeymen collective just release five new self-promo films. Without the constraints of working for a client the Monkeymen animators were allowed to go wild on their own, using their favourite tools to create whatever they wished. As a result they've ended up with 5 very different, light-hearted and amusing pieces of eye candy.

Following the recent mammoth stop-motion animation from Aardman - 'Gulp', comes this vast stop motion animation created out of nothing but post-it notes. The animation was made by Casa Darwin, outside of Galeria Melissa, in Brazil. The animation required 350,000 post-it notes, 25 animators and 5 months to complete the project.

C. H. Greenblatt (the creator of 'Chowder') has finally been given the go-ahead by Nickelodeon for his new pilot to be animated. Greenblatt is now finishing board revisions and casting voices. The next step will be to assemble all the production art, and then ship it to the animation studio. By January there should be a fully functioning 11-minute pilot!

For the time being C. H. Greenblatt has posted this teaser artwork to whet our appetites...

London director/animator/illustrator/designer Alice Dupre works on an astounding range of work. Her latest effort combines hand-drawn 2D animation and stop-motion wooden blocks in a piece called 'Big Scary – Tuesday Is Rent Day.'

Matt Holmes is a New Zealand based director in visual effects and also works frequently as an editor. Matt’s work has been part of several award winning campaigns, including winners of Gold and Bronze Lions at Cannes.

Considering this is the first time he's worked with stop motion on a commercial project it turned out pretty good.

'Gulp' is a short film created by Sumo Science at Aardman, depicting a fisherman going about his daily catch. Shot on location at Pendine Beach in South Wales, every frame of this stop-motion animation was shot using a Nokia N8, with its 12 megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss optics. The film has broken a world record for the 'largest stop-motion animation set', with the largest scene stretching over 11,000 square feet.

'A Letter To Momo' is going to be directed by Hiroyuki Okiura (who did 'Jin-Roh'), and its animation will be supervised by Masashi And (behind 'Spirited Away' and 'Princess Mononoke'). The other key animators include people from 'Evangelion 2.22', 'The Sky Crawlers', 'Tokyo Godfathers', and 'Summer Wars', as well. Even the background art comes from Hiroshi Ono, who worked on 'Kiki's Delivery Service'.

After the huge success of the fantastic 'Jin-Roh', rather than capatalsing on it, Okiura simply faded into the background and didn't direct another feature for eleven long years. Now he's back with 'A Letter To Momo' and I can't wait, it sounds great...

Synopsis:

Momo is a young girl who grew up in a big city. However, following the premature loss of her father, she has to move with her mother to the old family house on a remote island. Here, time seems to have stopped: old wooden buildings, holy shrines surrounded by trees, fields painstakingly carved out from steep hills... and no shopping mall.

Needless to say, Momo is not too overenthusiastic about this new environment. Most of all, her heart is still feeling uneasy about an unfinished letter left by her father. A letter that contained only two words: "Dear Momo..."

'Secret Mountain Fort Awesome' premiered on Cartoon Network yesterday, in advance of the full series run that is reportedly starting in October. The series is the creation of Peter Browngardt (Uncle Grandpa), who also plays the role of the lead, Festro. Here’s a pretty poor quality teaser for the series, but you get the idea. If you live in America you can go watch the full 11-minute pilot, 'Teleport-A-Potty,' over on www.cartoonnetwork.com

An animated interpretation of the strange life of Boston Corbett, the man who killed John Wilkes Booth. It was animated in charcoal, pastels and crayon on the pages of 12 paperback books by Drew Christie. Winner-Best Short Film, Local Sightings Film Festival 2010. Official selection Atlanta Film Festival 2011.